Categories: Ethnicities (“Jewish”), Filthy Lucre (“money”), Words (“literature”) and Sex (this being the day after Pride, I would say that part of his appeal as an author is that men and women might buy the book for the back cover)
from the book itself intro
If you read
this within the next 27 hours get thee to Books Incorporated at Town and Country to see, hear and feel Steve Almond, reading from, answering questions about, signing and selling his book {insert title of book about Stoner the novel from 1965, John Williams, and a long essay about everything else in Weird new almond joyful America}
And then go on to say something about Frank Portman also known as Dr. Frank from The Mr T Experience who wrote a YA novel about Carlmont High 16 miles from Gunn High that made me re-think my high school experience and whether we had two not one type of sarcasm.
It’s like one of those essay tea questions: Bears:Zoo::Goldfish:Pet Store.
I’m saying you should buy both Frank Portman’s King Dork and Steve Almond’s latest book — in fact they have a whole display of several Steve Almond books, and I actually shot that! I will likely “edit to add” for actual book title and maybe a linx.
b/w pay no attention to>> now for something completely different:
OKAY HERE FOR NEARLY THE FIRST TIME IN 2,186 POSTS, PLASTIC ALTO HAS AN ACTUAL INTERVIEW WITH A FAMOUS PERSON, OR OUR ROYAL WE VERSION OF SUCH
SA is Steve Almond
MW is Mark Weiss
You are so old school, thanks.
The thing about a blog, as far as I can tell, is that it is easy enough to amend if something looks sketchy. Nothing goes viral.
Good luck with your reading, meaning the public appearance. I’ll buy a book as log-rolling. Mark W
(P.S. I saw two former Oracle types — Murphy Halliburton and Steve Cohen last week).
And, after I actually read your responses: I think my ability to think was arrested in 1979: everything I say sounds like Alan Eagle in the 1978-1979 Gunn Oracle about who is a “Player” versus “PUD — Performs Under Demand”. David Leavitt came by the English class to recruit writers for his journal but I thought it would be cooler to try to emulate Alan, and Marsh McCall and Ann Vandenberg and join the mainstream press. (Actually, and this is really crate-digging, but there was an underground press briefly at Gunn, I think started by Suzy Cincone and we or I actually panned it in an editorial. Now I both regret that and wished I had jumped ship.
“For five dollars I will fuck your capitalist dreams.”
Pretty fucking prophetic and sexy –youth wasted on young. et cetera.
Also, Joe Russo Almost Dead is playing Frost Aug. 17 and it calls to mind maybe one of the last times I saw David Almond was a Dead show of actual Dead members in 1988 or so and he wore a skirt.
On Monday, July 1, 2019, 12:12:51 PM PDT, stevealmondjoy wrote:
Mark,
Just got these. Done my best to respond below…
On Jul 1, 2019, at 1:55 PM, mark weiss wrote:
MW: 1. Are you influenced by Borges, “Borges y Yo” in terms of the dual-identity of the speaker and the protagonist of a piece of writing? Is your case complicated by the fact you have a twin brother?
SA: I think you’re talking about the inherent tension that obtains with a first-person narrator, where that speaker is both the narrator (teller of the story) and the central character of that story. Yeah, it’s an issue. I see a lot of manuscripts (my own included) where there isn’t a clear distinction between these two. It wreaks havoc on storytelling. Not sure this has anything to do with my twin brother, though everything in my personality dates back to this circumstance.
MW: 2. I read somewhere that now that the word “literally” means both literally and figuratively and there is no other synonym for the word “literally,” that basically this is the end of all language, like an acceleration of the Tower of Babel phenomenon, plus when you add in Auto-correct what should we do? Also David Shields is not helping is he? Or is that a statement?
SA: I agree with Orwell here: language is (among other things) a political tool and an expression of the morality of our perception, and therefore our politics. When the language gets vague and/or intentionally imprecise, euphemizing, etc. it’s because some painful reality is being erased. This is typical of every corrupt regime. One of the sorry shocks of our moment is that our press has decided—for economic reasons, essentially—to become captive to the gibbering of a political actor who speaks a language of insinuating nonsense. To the extent we listen to his nonsense—as opposed to focusing on the actions of his regime—we’re complicit.
MW: 3. Do you think pictures are words? I mean, do you think you know what do I mean when I think pictures are words? For example: I have a blog and sometimes I write 20,000 words and other times I put three photos or I think links are a type of punctuation— is the electronic media revealing to us a huge paradigm shift or a disillusionment in terms of how we think we communicate? It’s sort of like that Tom Wolfe book about the guy who thinks that everything else before him was wrong because he found some Native Americans in South America who didn’t know what recursion was [Daniel L. Everett, Piraha, 1983], you know I’m sayin? You know {what} I’m saying? — If so, please tell me.
SA: Pictures are not words. They are pictures, a different medium. Words can, with the help of an attentive reader, make pictures in the mind. But everyone looks at a different picture. Which is good. It’s a collaboration. Part of your confusion here may redound[!] to the fact that visual storytelling has overtaken (and lapped and lapped) literary story-telling. But both still exist and are distinct.
MW: 4. Is it ironic that the Russians are hacking this? How was it different than Polonius eavesdropping and getting stabbed? Is it only a coincidence that Polonius and Putin start with a “P”?
SA: As I wrote in the last book, the Russians recognized that the American empire was susceptible to bad stories, and internal divisions. Our press essentially served as Putin’s press agents, by publicizing his stolen goods. Press, you’ll note, also begins with “P”.
MW: 5. Extra credit: do you have any stories good or bad about Steve Jenkins a.k.a. Steffan Jenkins a.k.a. Stephen Jenkins a.k.a. Stephan Jenkins? (If you have no idea what I’m talking about you are lucky and I won’t spoil it for you)
SA: No idea. Let’s keep it that way.
[Note: there was a fellow student at Terman one year and Gunn at least one year, the class between Professor Almond and myself, who became a rock star, made millions, shtupped a movie star and accumulated a set of “bad stories”, “bad” meaning both bad and good]
MW: Something that like that but smarter.
Sent from my iPhone
On Jul 1, 2019, at 10:39 AM, mark weiss wrote:
Steve / Scoop
Apropos of your appearance here (and I saw you at your previous appearance here) do you have time for a quick Q&A interview or a “pistol Larry dealio” with Plastic Alto, my blog?
I don’t think I knew the word “epistolary” until I went to reading by our Gunn contemporary, my classmate Sylvia Brownrigg, “The Metaphysical Touch” [FSG, 1999] although I also did recently pick up a copy of “84 Charing Cross Road” for whatever reason —I might just mail it to that address and see what happens.
???
Cue: write something ridiculous or equally nonsensical and include some Auto-Correct boo-boos. I.e. type here and hit reply
Mark Weiss
Sent from my iPhone
new almond stuff: 7:10
SA: Very odd book. What a strange set of books for a person to have written, what a strange person.
Books are reading us as we are reading them.
“Literature exists to help people know themselves” p9
Something about “potions and products” which reminded me MW about Paracelsus “poisons and potions”.
Earlier that day, I ran into Steve Almond his wife and two of his children, at Town and Country Village (El Camino at Embarcadero, kitty corner to Stanford Stadium across from the high school) seemingly as participants in a protest about the detainees at the U.S. border with Mexico. I actually had joined the fray a few minutes prior, after spending $64 at the bookstore and another $10 at the coffee shop. I was with my dog in one hand, or his leash actually, and a small rainbow flag I had bought the day before in San Francisco – I had marched in the Pride Parade. A uniformed guard from Forbes (not the magazine I don’t think) asked me if I was with the group. I took that to be a question of whether I was a protestor. I said “I’m waiving a rainbow flag and walking a dog, why?” He took my photograph and made some notes in a book and said that if I was a protestor I would have to get up the private property of Town and Country the mall and move closer to the street, where, in fact the vast majority of the others were. (On three corners, eventually). I tried to make a point about The Bill of Rights and than protestors also shopped there and he said I was making shit up. Then I saw Josh Becker the tech investor running for state office and I got him to stand with me and waive a sign and I chanted and the officer took note and pictures of Josh, too. I thanked Josh for humoring me and promised to donate $100 to his campaign. Maybe I will write the owner of the property and ask for permission to stand 10 feet from the curb and speak my mind. Later Duffy and I chatted up a protestor I had met previously and told her this story and then the Bar-Kays came on and I made a short vine of my dog — there’s a pun. My dog agrees with Chomsky that Everett is out to lunch.
you are so old school thanks.
the thing about a blog, as far as I can tell — is that it is easy enough to amend if something looks sketchy. Nothing goes viral.
Good luck with your reading, meaning the public appearance. I’ll buy a book as log-rolling. mark w (I saw 2 former oracle types — Murphy Halliburton and Steve Cohen last week).
and, after I actually read your responses: I think my ability to think was arrested in 1979: everything I say sounds like Alan Eagle in the 1978-1979 Gunn Oracle about who is a “Player” versus “PUD — Performs Under Demand”. David Leavitt came by the English class to recruit writers for his journal but I thought it would be cooler to try to emulate Alan and Marsh McCall and Ann Vandenberg and join the mainstream press. (Actually, and this is really crate-digging, but there was an underground press briefly at Gunn I think started by Suzy Cincone and we or I actually panned it in an editorial — now I both regret that and wished I had jumped ship. “For five dollars I will fuck your capitalist dreams” pretty fucking prophetic and sexy –youth wasted on young. et cetera
Also, Joe Russo Almost Dead is playing Frost Aug 17 and it calls to mind maybe one of the last times I saw David Almond was a Dead show of actual Dead members in 1988 or so and he wore a skirt.
On Monday, July 1, 2019, 12:12:51 PM PDT, stevealmondjoy wrote:
Mark,
Just got these. Done my best to respond below…
{this uncorr3ct3d version stood for until the next day}
> On Jul 1, 2019, at 1:55 PM, mark weiss wrote:
>
> 1 Are you influence by Borges Borges Eo in terms of the dual identity of the speaker and the protagonist of a piece of writing is this complicated by the fact you have a twin brother?
sa: I think you’re talking about the inherent tension that obtains with a first-person narrator, where that speaker is both the narrator (teller of the story) and the central character of that story. Yeah, it’s an issue. I see a lot of manuscripts (my own included) where there isn’t a clear distinction between these two. It wreaks havoc on storytelling. Not sure this has anything to do with my twin brother, though everything in my personality dates back to this circumstance.
>
> 2 I read somewhere that now that the word literally means both literally and figuratively and there is no other synonym for the word literally that basically this is the end of all language like acceleration of the Tower of Babel phenomenon plus when you add in auto correct what should we do? Also David Shields is not helping Izzy? Or is that a statement?
> sa: I agree with Orwell here: language is (among other things) a political tool and an expression of the morality of our perception, and therefore our politics. When the language gets vague and/or intentionally imprecise, euphemizing, etc. it’s because some painful reality is being erased. This is typical of every corrupt regime. One of the sorry shocks of our moment is that our press has decided—for economic reasons, essentially—to become captive to the gibbering of a political actor who speaks a language of insinuating nonsense. To the extent we listen to his nonsense—as opposed to focusing on the actions of his regime—we’re complicit.
> 3 do you think pictures are words? I mean do you think what do I mean when I think pictures or words? For example I have a blog and sometimes I write 20,000 words and other times I put three photos or I think links are a typo punctuation is the electronica media exposing us to a huge paradigm shift or a disillusionment in terms of how we think we communicate it’s sort of like that time will book about the guy who thinks that everything else before him was wrong because he found some native Americans in South America who didn’t know what iteration was you know I’m saying you know I’m saying if so please tell me.
sa: Pictures are not words. They are pictures, a different medium. Words can, with the help of an attentive reader, make pictures in the mind. But everyone looks at a different picture. Which is good. It’s a collaboration. Part of your confusion here may redound to the fact that visual storytelling has overtaken (and lapped and lapped) literary storytelling. But both still exist are are distinct.
> 4 is it ironic that the Russians are hacking this? How was it different than Polonius ease dropping and getting stabbed? Is it a coincidence that Polonius and Putin start with a P.
>
sa: As I wrote in the last book, the Russians recognized that the American empire was susceptible to bad stories, and internal divisions. Our press essentially served as Putin’s press agents, by publicizing his stolen goods. Press, you’ll note, also begins with P.
> Extra credit do you have any stories good or bad about Steve Jenkins a.k.a. Steffan Jenkins a.k.a. Stephen Jenkins a.k.a. Stephan Jenkins. (if you have no idea what I’m talking about you were lucky and I won’t spoil it for you)
sa: No idea. Let’s keep it that way.
>
> Something that bad but smarter
> Something that like that but smarter.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Jul 1, 2019, at 10:39 AM, mark weiss wrote:
>>
>>
>> Steve / Scoop
>> Apropos of your appearance here parentheses and I saw you at your previous appearance here parentheses do you have time for a quick Q&A interview or a pistol Larry dealio with plastic alto my blog.
>> I don’t think any of the word epistolary until I went to reading Vallarta Gunn contemporary my classmate Sylvia Brownrigg the metaphysical touch although I also did recently pick up a copy of 84 Charing Cross Rd. for whatever reason I might just mail it to that address and see what happens.
>> ???
>> Cue: write something ridiculous or equally nonsensical and include some auto correct boo-boos. I.e. type here and hit reply
>> Mark Weiss
>>
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>
this guy
and1:
this is from nearly four years ago and the Amazon reviews have more than doubled from 45 to 95:
This has 45 reviews on major web portal compared to 3 for the compilation I bought and mentioned above, with Namath and Red Smith and Dwight Clark the catch on cover, but 500 for Nate Jackson:
Steve Almond who lives in Boston has three kids, two brothers and was two years behind me at Gunn and the editor mantle of the Oracle apparently it appears does not like Football and is eloquent or elegant enough to stretch that thought or run under it like Cliff Branch from Snake Stabler in 1975 or like me running under a Billy Parker toss that glorious six seconds to last if not a lifetime then forty years — FORTY YEARS I SAY — my inner foghorn leghorn likewise rising out of its four-pint stance — for 177 pages and twenty three doll hairs from or for Melville House and Amy Sedaris too.
I spy the words “3.7 GPA” which is not referencing Ken Williards average yards per carry for the 4.9 in 1970.
I hope but am not counting on calling Jim Harbaugh a dick.
He was also known as “Scoop” his twin just Mike and also Dave or David big brother we also called, in a tip to Mel Brooks, in Mr. Murray’s Spanish class, Brad Elman and me, Professor Little All Man. Earlier he wrote about rock music. Maybe he is glossed herein and above, in previous 500,000 memes and moans.
Some joke about a woman before the baby-mom and a pun on statistics and sat-dick-sticks and “regression to mean”. Ok, but not very Nitsky or Nagurski. P. 98 “biggest fucking pussy…change your tampon you woman” this is not good for me, Steve, was it good for you?
And 1: pp 148 to 150 sustained thought about Pat Tillman that is promising, I hope to actually read it soon enough. I did not know Don Delillo had a book on football called End Zone listed in thanks.
Maybe stick to candy, kiddo. I am not baiting him. Ok, I will cut to the chase, the big opening number:
okay, references Harvard and Yale in the 1860s and banning of early versions of game which I have to admit does appeal to my inner snob of the six-figure private education club. Swede Oberlander call your ghost Dave Casper agent. I think David Almond started at Harvard and switched to Stanford. And Yes Ryan Fitzpatrick is making more of a dent in NFL than John Paye of Stanford did or does if you excuse the mixed metaphor. You would think a guy working at B.U. or what not would piss on Harvard, will have to skim for that. Nowinski, should be here. I think I traded briefly with Steve a minute ago. Jonathan Martin p. 115. Ok.
I have to admit that when I heard about Kwame the Stanford lineman who could play piano and was I think part West Indian (you can go West-East but not North-south, if you are jumping somehow from Bruce Hampton to hear as I am) there was a broadcast news bit I wanted to reach out and maybe Earthwise manage him, that being before he started beating up his partner, or you would think. Does Stanford have some kind of pipeline so to speak on gay black linemen?
Anyhow good luck, Steve Almond. I owe you a better two minutes, so to speak. I am not at bookstore, I am at Peets, across from a bookstore I knew or know but not in biblical or Wesleyan rapper sense even das butt.
andand especially since I kind of leave hanging the Frank Portman part of the equation, so I will break it down: Steve Almond is an author and teacher who has a book about hard rock while Frank Portman is an author and rocker who earned a fake “doctoral” merely by having meathead friends — Dr. Frank — so here is a link to an entire concert o fhis from 1997 and you can watch this or knot and then read both books — Steve Almond Stoner Book and King Dork by Frank Portman — and make your own comparison and put it up on your own blog. Excerpt from the video or synecdoche
Wednesday July 20 and August 7.
Mark in Donnie’s video
My dog gets a cameo although I’m sensitive about invading his privacy
He was licking his feet earlier.
I was going to add the word mic drop here although I’m not sure what it means and in fact I did drop my phone earlier this morning while straightening my room including his self—And I’m not sure if I will translate this back to English from auto correct I am quite lazy and somehow think that is a style thing — for the average reader it is bad enough that I jump back-and-forth from a Giants game to walk in the dog near the dish at Cetera let alone leaving the bits that our machine stupid and not human stupid —It’s a missed directed type of protest I guess my whole life is i mean. When I said “the magazine “the computer wanted to say “her” something. Some dogs actually do that stick their nose in peoples crotch they certainly do it to each other I would if I could.) and that last bit is the end of the parentheses not some kind of quirky smile creepy thing.
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 